Ulli Richter Photography London
”Pornographic Virtue” - Gay Male Bondage Photography
Mister B, Warmoestraat 89, Amsterdam
14 October 2007 to 12 May 2008
Opening View, Sunday 14 October, 16:00 – 18:00
Ulli Richter was born in a small East German village on the Czech border. In his early years as a child he was widely travelled accompanying his parents to most countries in Eastern Europe. This fostered his interest in photography, in particular travel photography which led him to develop a broad portfolio of architectural work.
A keen learner and ambitious connoisseur of life, Ulli sought a freer form of artistic expression. With the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 came fundamental changes in his personal life. Having been confined by the restraints of a communist society, he was now free to leave for foreign shores and look for new challenges in the field of photography.
Ulli moved to London in 1995 and today works as a commercial lifestyle and advertising photographer. Yet his artistic work encompasses the world of international gay subculture.
Coming from a family of alternative practitioners, Ulli has had first-hand-experience of the power of spirituality. Anyone who has ever participated in an SM-play-scene and felt the overwhelming intensity of the energy exchange between two people will understand that to him this is clearly a form of spiritual healing.
Ulli draws much of his artistic inspiration from the greats of still and moving images, particularly Diane Arbus, Ingmar Bergmann, Peter Greenaway and Federico Fellini. Indeed most of his work carries a strong sense of surrealism with its classic preoccupation of sex and decay. The people he photographs are complex individuals who might appear threatening and even violent, but are in fact kind, caring and full of passion.
By exhibiting large canvases of his work in public, Ulli’s aim is to juxtapose the deceptive ‘threat’ of a fetish scene (where in fact everyone can find a safe and consensual space to live out his personal fantasies) with the real absurdities and total disorientation reigning within our modern everyday society.
Ulli has worked for Australia’s BLUE Magazine, on
campaigns for London’s SMGays and Suzie Krueger’s legendary
HARD ON club;.he is proud to be associated with RoB London and SpeXter
Munich, both for whom he has created iconic advertising images, which
have become collector’s items. He is also staff photographer for
the LA-based INSTIGATOR Magazine and publishes regular photo essays for
LondonFetishScene.com. His work has been shown in numerous exhibitions
and is part of various private collections around the world. _____________________________________________________________________
For interview requests please contact the relevant agent directly.
Email: studio@ullirichter.com
Web: www.kinkinprint.com
Tel: + 44 (0) 7980 920 580
Ulli Richter – represented by Christoph Knoch (Europe)
Ulli Richter – represented by Manuela Hecht (UK/Ireland)